By Sufuyan Ojeifo<\/p>\n
The most distasteful theatre of the absurd yet in the electioneering
\ndrives of the two leading political parties – the All Progressives
\nCongress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – played out during
\nthe presidential campaign rally of the APC in Abeokuta, on Monday
\n(February 11).\u00a0 Nothing close to the oddity of the self-inflicted
\nembarrassment had ever happened at the level of intra-party setting to
\nsuch calibre of officials of government and party.<\/p>\n
Perceived from whatever prism(s), what happened at the MKO Abiola Stadium,
\nthe rally venue, while President Muhammadu Buhari was on the podium to
\nraise the hand of the party\u2019s governorship candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun,
\nwas tantamount to a serious security breach. The assault on the president
\nwas the height of madness demonstrated by ragtag partisans with a
\nsingle-minded mandate to embarrass APC\u2019s topmost echelon.<\/p>\n
The person and office of President Buhari were unconscionably violated and
\ndisrespected by persons with binary membership of the APC in Ogun State,
\nbut who had moved to the Allied People\u2019s Movement (APM) at the behest of
\nGovernor Ibikunle Amosun, due to his failed bid to impose his preferred
\ngovernorship candidate on the party. The APM members were procured to
\nprosecute a proxy agenda.<\/p>\n
It was unimaginable that these elements would hurl objects, first at the
\nnational chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and a national
\nleader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; then, at President Buhari
\nwho had Abiodun by his side. The rally turned awry and became unruly,
\nforcing the President in his speech, after he had raised the hand of
\nAbiodun, to urge the uncontrollable crowd of rude party members to vote
\nfor candidates of their choice across the party lines.<\/p>\n
All the assaulted leaders of the APC at the rally demonstrated some
\nunparalleled equanimity.\u00a0 Although, Tinubu was apparently miffed where he
\nsat when the president asked the crowd to vote for candidates of their
\nchoice across party lines, he could only show his anger by throwing away
\nthe flag (it was not clear whether it was APC\u2019s or APM\u2019s as both flags
\nproliferated the rally venue) that was beside a vacant seat by his right
\nhand side.<\/p>\n
It was very significant to notice the prudence exhibited by the
\nPresident\u2019s security men. They had quickly formed a wall of defence in
\nfront of the president and the APC governorship candidate to stave off the
\nobjects, which were being hurled at them.\u00a0 Some over-zealous presidential
\nguard could have, in that circumstance, taken precipitate actions and the
\nstory would have been different.<\/p>\n
There was no doubt the president was put in harm\u2019s way as a result of the
\npolitical indiscretion of an exasperated emperor. Buhari\u2019s\u00a0security and
\nsafety were under real threat. The desperation of a neo-political
\ngodfather must be indicted for the salacious action. Amosun had tried in
\nvain to install his crony as his successor in the governance of Ogun
\nState. He had wanted to do that without recourse to Vice President Yemi
\nOsinbajo who is from Ogun and other APC leaders, including former Governor
\nOlusegun Osoba.<\/p>\n
Before Amosun\u2019s\u00a0danse\u00a0macabre on Monday, he had expended all the tricks in
\nthe books to outplay the leadership of the party in Abuja after having
\npocketed the structure of the party in the State.\u00a0 Reports had it that he
\nhad, single-handed, as headmasters would do, drawn a list of candidates
\nthat would contest for all the elective positions in the state and had
\npushed it for ratification at his own primary election supervised by his
\nadministration officials and officers of the compromised State Executive
\nCommittee of the APC.<\/p>\n
While Amosun\u2019s primary election had produced Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, the
\none supervised by a validly-nominated committee appointed by the National
\nWorking Committee (NWC) of the APC had produced Abiodun as the
\ngovernorship candidate. Amosun had visited Buhari about three times in a
\nbid to sway presidential support for himself and his candidate but Buhari
\nhad allowed the Oshiomhole-led NWC to take the final decisions.<\/p>\n
Hopeless and unable to subordinate his ego to the diktat and principle of
\nparty supremacy, his “imperial majesty”, as his compatriot, Rochas
\nOkorocha did in Imo State by hijacking the Action Alliance (AA) platform
\nfor the governorship aspiration of his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, resorted to
\nself-help by directing his anointed governorship candidate to move to the
\nAPM on which platform he is contesting for the governorship position.<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that Amosun had taken his reputed closeness to Buhari
\nfor granted.\u00a0 His actions have so far demonstrated lack of respect for the
\nparty leadership and the presidency. It baffles how Amosun could become so
\nconceited to ignore some critical stakeholders of the party in Ogun State,
\ntake on the entire leadership of the APC in the Southwest zone and even
\nextend the aggravation to the national leadership.<\/p>\n
What was it if not an outright anti-party act for Amosun to encourage APC
\nmembers to move to APM and to openly take the governorship candidate,
\nAkinlade, round the State, canvassing votes? He had even taken Akinlade to
\nthe presidential villa to present him to Buhari as the man who would take
\nover from him in Ogun. Imagine the level of obsession with the
\nprivatization of the commonwealth and governance of Ogun State!<\/p>\n
Even at the APC presidential rally in Abeokuta, Amosun lost his sense of
\npolitesse as he spoke agitatedly about the fact that Ogun State would vote
\nfor Buhari on February 16, as if he controls the entire voter population
\nin the state.\u00a0 He was emphasizing the presidential election in the light
\nof Buhari\u2019s candidature and apparently passing across the message that
\nMarch 2 governorship election would assume a different voting pattern.<\/p>\n
Former governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, would not suffer
\nthe imprudence of Amosun gladly.\u00a0 He mounted the podium to address the
\nissue pointedly.\u00a0 According to him, the APC is the party that should be
\nvoted for, adding that those who were parading the identity of any other
\npolitical party were hypocrites. Amosun\u2019s hirelings that had been chanting
\n\u201cole (thief)\u201d at the background even before Aregbesola presented his
\nunequivocal speech, were at this point, unmistakably agitated.<\/p>\n
Their subsequent resort to pelting the leaders of the party with objects
\nmarked a reprehensible descent to the gutter of political rascality and
\nleadership indiscretion promoted by Amosun.\u00a0 The battle for the soul of
\nOgun State would appear to be going on within the APC itself. That
\ninternal division has the potential of causing\u00a0\u00a0collateral damage to the
\nAPC and even the APM that Amosun is projecting.<\/p>\n
Amosun\u2019s gambit fittingly, possibly approximates a Yoruba axiom, which
\nsays \u201ckaka ki Eku ki o je sese a fi se awa da nu\u201d transliterated thus:
\n\u201cInstead of the bush rat to eat a certain Yoruba species of beans, it
\nwould rather scatter it.\u201d It is in this context that the governor\u2019s
\ntheatrics on the day of the rally, calling on and begging the people who
\nwere throwing stones at the party leaders not to disgrace him in the
\npresence of his \u201cfather\u201d, President Buhari, when, in actual fact, he was
\nthe propelling force behind the entire political rascality, could be
\nsituated.<\/p>\n
As it is, Amosun has put himself on the spot, taking on many battles at
\nonce, and hoping to win them. How will he achieve that feat? With what
\nhappened at the Abeokuta APC presidential rally, Amosun had gone to the
\nedge in a\u00a0danse\u00a0macabre and going completely overboard into the ocean of
\npolitical self-destruction. If he does not know it, then he would be very
\nna\u00efve. But if he survives the backlashes of his action, then his survival
\nmust have something divine to it.<\/p>\n